Naughty Dog Archive

Before Crash Team Racing was released, many saw it as a soulless cash-in on the success of Super Mario Kart. Opinions were quickly changed when Crash Team Racing actually turned out to be good. Quality multiplayer racing action combined with a solid and beefy single player mode made Crash Team Racing one of the most popular games on the original PlayStation.

Before Naughty Dog made games about mass murderer “everyman” Nathan Drake, they made platformers – quite good ones too. Crash Bandicoot was created in conjunction with Universal Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment, and really set the standard for platformers on the PlayStation.

Crash Bandicoot was one of that games that really helped to change the fortunes of the PlayStation in its early days. The game also arguably made a name for its developer, Naughty Dog, a company which has gone on to become one of the best technical studios in the world. Pity about what happened after Naughty Dog stopped making Crash games, though.

The Jak & Daxter HD Collection is out in the states now, and will be out here next week (we might even have a review for you in the near future), and to celebrate, Naughty Dog and 2 Player Productions teamed up to produce this short documentary on the making of the series.

Pretty interesting stuff. I’ll always wonder what the second game would have been like if they weren’t so heavily influenced by Grand Theft Auto III, however.

Back in the 90s, Naughty Dog was one of the few companies delivering quality PAL conversions – most other companies simple slapped some borders on and slowed the game down by 5 frames per second (looking at you, Square and Capcom).

A future blog post will examine the Japanese localisation of the game. Given the different character design and tone of the Japanese versions, that should be one insightful article.

Way of the Warrior is a 3DO exclusive fighting game that was heavily influenced by Mortal Kombat. It was developed by Naughty Dog when the studio was just a two man operation: Jason Rubin & Andy Gavin. The game was developed on a shoestring budget, with the developers and their friends and family serving as the characters in the game, using cheaply made costumes. The digitised footage used in the game was shot in the hallway of developers’ apartment building. Still, the game proved effective enough for the Naughty Dog duo to get a three game contract with Universal Interactive Studios, which led to the creation of Crash Bandicoot.